By CHARLOTTE HSU

UB architects have won an international competition with their
proposal to build a wall from panels of super-thin steel folded
into wild geometric patterns.

Nick Bruscia, clinical assistant professor of architecture, and
Chris Romano, research assistant professor of architecture, took
home first place in the TEX-FAB Digital Fabrication
Alliance’s digital fabrication competition, called SKIN. They
beat 67 other entrants from 14 countries.

The contest asked competitors to reimagine building
façades — to present creative ways of improving the
look and function of building “skins.”

Winners were announced last month at the ACADIA Adaptive
Architecture conference, which UB co-chaired.

Chris Romano (right) and Nick Bruscia with the prototype, which was erected this summer near the entrance to Silo City in Buffalo. Photo: Douglas Levere

The faculty members have been partnering with the company for
more than a year to explore new uses for the firm’s
materials.

“Textured sheet steel has yet to be used to its full
potential, as the typical application for the material has been
non-structural,” Bruscia says. “The texturing process,
while aesthetic, also strengthens the material, allowing it to
perform as a free-standing, lightweight façade system
without the use of additional structural components. This is
exactly how we’re using it in our 3xLP and other
projects.”

Bruscia and Romano used computational modeling to generate their
award-winning design.

3xLP is similar to 2XmT, a wall that the partners erected this
summer near the entrance to Silo City, a cluster of grain elevators
along the Buffalo River. The architects entered 2XmT in the first
phase of the TEX-FAB competition, then revised their entry to focus
on 3xLP after becoming finalists. In contrast to 2XmT, 3xLP is
porous, containing geometric spaces through which air and light can
pass.

2XmT is among UB projects that are contributing to the
transformation of Silo City, taking it from a dilapidated
industrial site to a hotbed of creative thinking. Last year, UB
architecture and planning students built a stainless steel tower
nearby to house a colony of rescued bees, and Bruscia and Romano
have converted an abandoned office building on the premises into an
architectural studio.

The architects plan to use their $10,000 in prize money to build
a prototype of 3xLP, which will be displayed at the TEX-FAB 5
conference in Austin in February.

The faculty members’ partnership with Rigidized Metals is
one result of Department of Architecture Chair Omar Khan’s
efforts to cooperate with local manufacturers — outreach that
has led to new courses and research on materials from metals to terra
cotta.

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